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'You can get up now'

Join jaguars.com senior editor Vic Ketchman as he tackles the fans' tough questions.

John from Neptune Beach, FL:
I'm working out in a gym in Baton Rouge maybe 15 years ago and a guy asks to work in with me. I introduce myself and he does the same. He says he's Jim Taylor. Of course I say, "THE Jim Taylor?" Nice guy.

Vic: He wasn't a nice guy on the field. Taylor is one of the toughest guys to ever play the game. I remember this picture of him from when I was a kid. He was in a three-point stance on a muddy field. His uniform was covered in mud and his right sock was pushed down, exposing thread hanging down the outside of his leg from a wound that had been stitched and was oozing blood. Put that in your video game. There was probably only one guy tougher, Chuck Bednarik, who was probably the only guy in the league who could've done to Taylor what Bednarik claims to have done. It's part of NFL lore that on the final play of the 1960 NFL title game, after Taylor had caught a pass and Bednarik had tackled him, Bednarik held Taylor to the ground as the clock expired. When it did, Bednarik is to have uttered these immortal words to Taylor: "You can get up now because this (you know what) game is over." I love the tough guys.

Michael from Los Angeles, CA:
Maybe kids get into video football before playing in the yard because dad is sitting next to them on the couch instead of tossing the ball around outside. Most child development experts would agree that hand-to-eye and physical coordination in the three-dimensional real world are far superior to thumb muscle development trained on a two-dimensional screen.

Vic: I'm trying to think how I would be different if my father and I hadn't bonded on Sennott Ave. outside Forbes Field, as he tried to buy tickets cheap from scalpers just before kickoff. I can remember him paying $3 each for two tickets because the guy promised they were on the 50, and then being outraged because we were right behind the screen behind home plate. What if my father and I had played video games together? I probably wouldn't be the well-rounded, sensitive guy that I am today

Tom from London, UK:
In your opinion, who are the front-runners for the relocation to LA?

Vic: It's impossible to identify the front-runners because Los Angeles isn't anywhere near ready to receive a team. Wayne Weaver said on "Jaguars This Week" this past Wednesday that putting a team in Los Angeles may be more likely to occur in 2015 or '16 than in 2010 or '11. Who can predict which teams will be vulnerable 10 years from now?

Mark from Jacksonville:
Do you think the Titans will play harder against the Colts because of the television commercial?

Vic: I think it would rub me a little raw if I was a Titans player.

Joe from Jacksonville Beach, FL:
Why are you so harsh on the Madden video game? Is it because you are like 70 years old and don't like all this new technology? It's pretty realistic to the real thing and I actually learned a lot of rules and positions by playing it. You should try it. Oh, wait, you don't know how a PS2 works. Sucks for you.

Vic: It actually doesn't suck for me because not staying up all night staring into one of those stupid games allows me to sleep and prepare myself for the real world, which is all the video game I need.

Ben from Jacksonville:
Tom's comments made me laugh. That guy's really serious about his video games. Honestly, though, it's not like Madden wrote these games. Someone else designed them and then paid him to use his name.

Vic: No! Are you serious? Are you telling me that John Madden isn't a video game junkie? Are you telling a guy who's afraid to fly, travels in a bus and thinks a telestrator is an "Etch A Sketch" might not even know how to turn one of those stupid games on? If you ever spent one minute of time in Madden's company, you'd know he's the least likely person on the face of the earth to play a video game. I liked Madden better when he chain-smoked on the sideline and looked like his pants were going to fall down. At least that Madden was real.

James from Fort Gordon, GA:
I am in the Army and have been for 10 years. The comment that was made about the video games helping is outrageous. All I have seen in this generation of video game players is soldiers coming into the Army overweight and non-athletic. They are smart as a whip, but that doesn't help when you are too lazy to get off the couch and work out.

Vic: I wish war could be played on a video game. I truly do.

Bill from Orange Park, FL:
I know you sometimes give short answers on a question when you want to do a follow up question on the topic. OK, I'll bite. What's the story of Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor?

Vic: You're right about the short answers. I really got those Cleveland fans, didn't I? The Hornung-Taylor answer, however, carried no extra meaning. They're both in the Hall of Fame. It was an easy answer.

Sean from Jacksonville:
So if the NFL had to choose one team right now to send to Los Angeles, which team would it probably be, based on everything you said yesterday?

Vic: If it was right now, it would probably be San Diego because they're having trouble getting a stadium deal done and moving up the road to L.A. or Anaheim wouldn't be all that difficult. As I said, however, L.A. is not ready to receive a team. By the time it is, the Chargers will probably have a new stadium and have secured their future in San Diego. L.A. is going to be a musical chairs game and some poor town is going to get caught without a chair when the music stops.

Bill from Jacksonville:
Taylor and Hornung are a great choice but I'd also consider Jim Brown and whoever.

Vic: Ernie Green was the other guy. He was a great blocker but he also rushed for 3,204 yards in his career. He had a 4.8 yards-per-carry average and averaged 6.0 in 1963. You could make a point for Brown and Green. I considered it.

Brian from Milwaukee, WI:
I enjoyed reading the story about Trestin George. Are people like me who enjoy a story like this over a story about Maurice Clarett in the minority?

Vic: The story was good timing, wasn't it? A lot of these kids come from horrible backgrounds and they've had to make a choice. Trestin George chose the high road.

Billie from Palatka, FL:
I just had a quick comment about the Jaguars being totally a Jacksonville team. You might consider northeast Florida and southeast Georgia, not just Duval County, to make the Jaguars almost a regional team. I know there are a lot of season ticket holders here in Putnam County. Love your column.

Vic: The Jaguars belong to the northeast Florida, southeast Georgia region, but the season ticket numbers clearly reflect that the overwhelming majority of ticket holders are in the Jacksonville metropolitan area. The hope is that the Jaguars will take on more of a regional flavor, but as for right now, Jacksonville proper is carrying this franchise.

Jo from Jacksonville:
Jimmy Smith, Jerome Bettis, Curtis Martin, Priest Holmes and Marshall Faulk: Who's going into the Hall of Fame from this group?

Vic: Bettis, Martin and Faulk are locks. Holmes needs more years and Smith will have trouble overcoming the swelling ranks of wide receivers who are posting big numbers.

Mark from Rochester, NY:
If your team goes 0-4 in the preseason, would you say there's something to worry about?

Vic: No, I only think you worry if you don't see what you need to see. Coaches know what that is. The preseason has a different kind of scoreboard. Teams should be judged by their readiness for the regular season. The Colts were 0-5 in last year's preseason. You need to finish healthy and ready to go. If you do that, the preseason was a success.

Lee from Jacksonville:
You mentioned that Miami and other cities have unique revenue streams that keep them off the Los Angeles list. What revenues are you speaking of and how, as fans and citizens, do we help develop those revenue streams in Jacksonville?

Vic: They are revenue streams defined solely by market size. The radio rights and preseason TV rights in big cities are worth more than the radio rights and preseason TV rights in small cities. Some teams get big money for their rights. The Jaguars buy their air time. There are more signage sponsors available in big markets than there are in small markets. The Patriots are the perfect example of the disparity in naming rights ability. The Patriots get more for the naming rights to Gillette Stadium's parking lots than the Jaguars get for the naming rights to Alltel Stadium. Pricing is another issue. Big-market teams have huge fan bases, which makes demand much greater than supply. The Redskins just had a scrimmage and they charged $25 for parking. Parking was free for the Jaguars scrimmage. As I have said before, for Jacksonville to compete against those big markets, it has to over-achieve. That should have been understood right from the beginning or there was no reason to even put a team here.

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